Enhancing the Capacity and Capability of Washington State Human and Animal Food Testing Laboratory in Support of an Integrated Food Safety System

PAR-20-105: Overall Component
Project Summary
The Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) Food Safety and Consumer Services
(FS&CS) Laboratory Program is the State’s Primary Regulatory Human and Animal Food Safety
Laboratory. The Laboratory has worked very closely with FDA and other federal partners in the past
decades on several cooperative agreements, for instance, FDA FERN MCAP, ISO, MFRPS, AFRPS,
BSE, RRT, Produce Safety, and USDA MDP. As an ISO17025 accredited laboratory, we’ve had a
quality management system in place since 2011 with a dedicated quality assurance staff and
procedures in place to assure good laboratory practices. We have laboratory facilities to assure the
proper environment for advanced instrumentation in addition to secure sample custody and laboratory
space.
The FS&CS Laboratory Program is willing and able to participate in the following 7 project areas:
(1) Discipline A Microbiology Track 2: Human Food Product Testing (High-500 Samples)
(2) Discipline A Microbiology Track 3: Animal Food Product Testing (High-500 Samples)
(3) Discipline A Microbiology Track 4: Whole Genome Sequencing (Low-100 Samples)
(4) Discipline A Microbiology Track 5: Capability/Capacity Development-Cyclospora
(5) Discipline D Special Project Track 1: Sample Collection (High-1000 Samples)
(6) Discipline D Special Project Track 2: NFSDX and ORAPP Integration
(7) Discipline D Special Project Track 2: Method Development and Validation
The Laboratory Program is located in a strategic geographic area of the United States. Washington
State is home to several major international shipping ports, through which nearly $16 billion in food
and agricultural products were exported in 2018. The Port of Seattle, the state’s largest city and port,
is the gateway port for all Asian and Canadian trade.
The FS&CS Laboratory is eager to be one of the Laboratory Flexible Funding Model funded
laboratories. The Laboratory is committed to working with the state regulatory Food Safety and
Animal Feed Programs in taking innovative steps toward a fully integrated human and animal feed
safety system. We also continue to be very appreciative of our federal grantor’s support in this
endeavor and look forward to our collaborative work in the future.
Washington State Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Consumer Services Laboratory